It was a packed house at The Piano to hear Grant Robertson speak with journalist Philip Matthews. After initially confusing Grant’s current employer (University of Waikato becoming a great running gag through the session), Philip asked about the title of Grant’s memoir. “Anything Could Happen” was a song by The Clean and the chorus of this song begins the book, which was very much a Dunedin book.
For Grant, Dunedin is home, full of amazing people, and a past and present of inventive music and arts, like The Dunedin Sound of the 1980s. He reflected on his different places in life when he left Dunedin compared to his return, and the different ways you relate to a place through different parts of your life.
Philip asked how that reading the book, Dunedin also seemed like a dark place. Grant thought that this perspective was more about him at the time, but that the early 1990s were a dark time in New Zealand. The impact of Rogernomics and Ruth Richardson’s budgets with significant job losses and difficult experiences for many Kiwis. While his own experiences at university during this time were good, but for him personally by 1994 he desperately needed to leave. This was the time where he came to terms with his sexuality and needed to go somewhere else.
Philip asked about Grant’s family and upbringing. Grant was the youngest of three boys and as the youngest he was always trying to keep up with his brothers. Both are now academics and authors, and Grant joked he was the family’s failed academic. Beyond Anything Could Happen, Grant talked about he was very interested in writing about Rodney Kennedy, an important arts patron and queer icon in Dunedin.
Philip noted that Anything Could Happen came out around the same time as Jacinda Ardern’s book A Different Kind of Power. He noted that many reviewers paid a lot of attention to her upbringing in the Mormon church, what was Grant’s experience with faith and upbringing? Grant said it was very important, as his family was embedded in the Presbyterian Church (his father moved to Dunedin because of the church), and even though he was not an active part of the church now, it did help to instill a strong sense of social justice. He did note that for Jacinda, Mormonism being more ‘unusual’ might have been a part of this increased attention.
Philip noted that Christchurch did not come off well in his book. Grant reflected on an experience during the 2013 Labour leadership contest, where he was told by a queer couple that NZ was not ready for a gay PM. He reflected that they might have been right, and that though he was open about himself and it was a non-issue in Parliament, the wider public and media response at the time was a factor in that contest.
Philip pointed to how the book had some things to say about Grant’s former colleagues – an unflattering portrait of David Cunliffe for example. Grant said that that was a difficult time for the party, and that Cunliffe had promised a lot to different factions, but was unable to break through with the public. Andrew Little on the other hand was able to unite the party but struggled to break through. Grant said that Little was important because he was brave enough to realise he needed to step aside in 2017.
Grant then reflected on how politics can be difficult for people. He talked about one of his mentors Marian Hobbs. She was an extraordinary person, smart and clever, and inspired by intrinsically strong Labour values. But she struggled in the debating chamber and cruel caricatures about her appearance stuck and followed her in the media.
Philip asked Grant about some of his forward-thinking work around the future of work. This project in 2016 was prescient about some of the challenges we face now, and involved speaking with stakeholders across the country. It was fascinating work and an example of the kind of long-term thinking and consideration that Grant sees as lacking in New Zealand politics generally.
Asked whether he missed politics, Grant was quite emphatic (NO) and that he chooses to call himself a ‘recovering politician’. But he thinks it is important for good people to be in politics whatever the party. Politics is a difficult profession with intense scrutiny which has only got worse with social media, and he reflected on the treatment of Jacinda Ardern.
Moving to audience questions
Advocacy for universities as Chancellor of University of Otago: He emphasised the importance of research and properly funding this and looking to the long-term challenges for New Zealand.
Claims of ‘Labour’s debt’ by the current government: Grant said that he sticks by the decisions made in 2020 and 2021, and that there was no playback and not every decision was perfect. He had seen the generational effects of unemployment in the 1990s and was determined not to repeat it.
Arts and cultural funding: this was extremely important and it was incredibly disheartening to see it drop away.
The environment: Grant said “The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment” and that New Zealanders relate to the environment intensely. Governments need to take big decisions and think long-term and that while there is the will to act, this comes against the pressures of short-term thinking.
Young people and work: He said it is difficult for young people in the current environment. But it was important to develop truly human skills and creativity and he was optimistic that if done right, new jobs will be there.
This was a fascinating session and it was a privilege to be able to hear from an experienced (recovering) politician about his experiences in politics as well as how his life shaped him.
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Biographies and memoirs of New Zealand politicians
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